Holidays & Hospitals

We had a very nice and relaxing Christmas week, with the exception of a few hospital visits for Great Grammy Helen and myself. I'll go into more detail about that later, but first, here is how our week started...

Owen couldn't wait to go see Santa. For at least two weeks he would tell whoever would listen, stranger or not, what Santa was bringing him for Christmas. "I'm getting a skateboard!" he would say in an excited voice. Then with exaggerated hand jesters he would explain that he was also getting a helmet, and knee pads, and elbow pads. I love how they just assume that they are getting whatever they want. Thankfully, we were planning on buying him that anyway, only we got him a scooter instead of a skateboard.
Since Owen was born, we have bought him only one present for his birthday and Christmas, and then made a donation in his name. This is something we plan on continuing for both kids, however we forgot about Santa! So this year we bought Owen the scooter and helmet as his one big gift, made a donation to Toys for Tots, and then had smaller gifts from Nana and Papa that Nana had thankfully wrapped from Santa. Although if you ask Owen, pretty much every gift came from Santa, even the digital camera we explained that Nana and Papa bought him.
{Pics taken by Owen with his new camera to come!} Thanks for all the nice gifts Nana and Papa, aka Santa!
Because we were going to the Willards' for a couple of days to spend Christmas, we had our own Christmas at home so we didn't have to take even more stuff. Here is Owen opening his scooter.

I think he was most excited about the helmet and knee/elbow pads. So funny!

Then we headed up to Mimi and Grumpa's house, where Mimi had a fun surprise for us. She bought our family a very cute book and doll called The Elf on the Shelf. This is going to be a new family tradition for us. Every year before Christmas you take out the elf, who Owen named Marker, and place him somewhere in the house. As the book explains, each night the elf goes to the North Pole and reports to Santa whether you have been good or bad. Then the next morning you find him somewhere else in the room. We had a lot of fun with it talking to Marker throughout the day and using him to our advantage once in a while too. Below is where we found Marker Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve we went to great Uncle Larry and Auntie Joyce's house for dinner. No pics though because I forgot the camera, sorry. We had a very nice time though and Owen was great entertainment as usual. Grammy Helen wasn't able to make it though because she had spent the night before in the ER. She seems to be doing a little better now, but still isn't 100%. Please pray for her.
Owen and Mimi putting together his new Parking Garage Christmas morning. What a fun gift. Thanks Mimi and Grumpa, we all love it.


Owen and Grumpa playing with everything and having a good time making a big mess.



The rest of the Willards came over for Christmas dinner. We had a wonderful meal and a good time sharing funny stories about the Willard boys, I mean men, as usual.


Teagan loved cuddling with Jessica, and Owen couldn't get enough of Janice.

A family photo before we settled in for the night.

So now here is the story of me going to the hospital. On Christmas Eve we took Owen to his first real movie at the theatre. We saw The Tale of Despereaux, which was cute although kind of slow. Owen did a great job sitting through the entire thing. I however got a very bad chest pain halfway through and was short of breath and then couldn't take in a deep breath without it causing a lot of pain in my heart. I have had this before and didn't think it was that big of a deal, except that it continued into the next day, at which point the pain also moved to the middle of my back. Because of my family's history of heart problems, I decided to go to the doctor when we got back to RI the day after Christmas. She did an EKG at the office and told me to go to the ER because she was concerned it could be heart related, or I could have a blood clot in my lung given that I am four weeks postpartum. Although I felt this was unnecessary I went anyway because I have too much to loose. After more tests, including a CT, they ruled out anything major and sent me home with "abnormal chest pain". Thanks, I could have told you that! Anyway, I am feeling much better now, just a little irritated that we had to go through a night in the ER, but thankful that nothing is wrong. I also had to "pump and dump" as they say for 48 hours because of the IV injection from the CT. Mike therefore had to give Teagan her first bottle, which she took like a pro.


Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas and hope everyone else did too!